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The Ruusan Reformations disbanded the Republic's centralized armed forces and set limits on the strength of the Planetary Security Forces. By the last century of the Republic Classic era, this had led to much of the Outer Rim being effectively abandoned to lawlessness and instability. The crumbling of order concentrated power in the region's most populous and prosperous systems, of which Eriadu in the Seswenna sector was the most powerful. Dominated by the Quintad, five powerful families which included the Tarkins, Eriadu became and industrial powerhouse and the headquarters of Quintad Orbital Manufacturing (QOM), a major military shipbuilding corporation.[1]

Given his wish, the now-General Tarkin began to strengthen Seswenna's military capabilities by building new warships in QOM's own facilities, but this soon fell afoul of the Ruusan Reformations' restrictions on capital ship strength and size and earned Tarkin the unwelcome attention of Judicial Forces inspectors. Frustrated, Tarkin turned to other shipbuilding companies with which QOM had forged ties, striking lend-lease deals that placed dozens of foreign-made corvettes, frigates and cruisers under Eriadu's control. Such "demonstration fleets" were common in the Core Worlds, but Tarkin's ambitions in the Rim alarmed the Judicials, and his next actions did nothing to allay their fears: Tarkin struck mutual-defense pacts with neighboring sectors, trading economic assistance for agreements to combine military forces in times of need, share navigational data among their Planetary Security Forces, and treat their sectors as a single theater of operations known as the Greater Seswenna. Tarkin then looked further afield, seeking agreements with other sectors to exchange navigational data and allow safe passage by mutual consent. At a stroke, Tarkin had turned a disorganized collection of Planetary Security Forces into a regional military power, which he proclaimed the Republic Outland Regions Security Force.[1]

The ORSF's rapid expansion bred fears of empire-building on Coruscant. Outraged by accusations of disloyalty, Tarkin stood down as Governor-General in place of his cousin Garvedon and was elected Seswenna's senator in 54 BBY. As the Seswenna sector's representative to Coruscant, Tarkin became an articulate proponent of enhancing the Republic's military capabilities, using the Outland Regions Security Force as a model. His feud with the Judicial Department continued, though the ORSF had many sympathizers within the Judicial Forces, and all the while Tarkin swore that he would turn over control of the ORSF to the Republic government, provided the force was part of a restored, centralized Republic Military.[1]

Tarkin became the leader of the Militarist faction of the Galactic Senate, but the suspicions of his detractors deepened. Senators such as Finis Valorum noted the all-Human composition of the ORSF, which struck many as speciesist, and also accused Tarkin of effectively buying the acquiescence of Eriadu's impoverished neighbors, seeing sinister designs in the fact that the ORSF referred to its expanded theater of operations as the Greater Seswenna. In reaction, Tarkin and personnel of the ORSF came to refer to their fleet and ground forces as the "Republic Navy" and the "Republic Army", seeing it as a template for a restored force.[1]

The Outland Regions Security Force was put to the test during the Stark Hyperspace War of 44 BBY. The pirateIaco Stark had been raiding Trade Federation convoys, intensifying a bacta shortage. Tarkin urged the Judicials to hunt down and destroy Stark, threatening that if they would not, the ORSF would. However, the Senate heeded Finis Valorum's advice instead, calling a peace conference. Tarkin wrung the location of the peace conference, Troiken, out of Nute Gunray of the Trade Federation. To send the ORSF to a planet on the other side of the galaxy to Eriadu would be a major violation of defense fleet mobility regulations, but Tarkin banked that a major victory over Stark's pirates would make him a hero and override legal concerns.[1]

Sympathetic Judicials lent the ORSF several battalions of special forces assault troops to provide a ground assault force.[1] When the peace conference began, Gunray signaled the ORSF from his mechno-chair, and Tarkin was too eager to analyse the navigational data. Suspecting treachery, however, Iaco Stark had piggybacked Gunray's transmission with a navcomputer virus known as a Tionese program. By the time the ORSF mustered, every navigation computer was infected with the virus. Only one-third of the force reached Troiken; another third emerged from hyperspace off-course, while the last third emerged from hyperspace in places that would destroy them, such as within planets or near black holes and stars.[5]

During the Clone Wars, Eriadu became a besieged Republic salient within Separatist space. The Outland Regions Security Force fought alongside clone troopers as part of the Republic's Eighteenth Army under the command of Wilhuff Tarkin, now one of the first Moffs, and his younger brother Gideon. The Greater Seswenna became the official name of the Eighteenth Army's theater of operations, and the ORSF was deployed in engagements along both the Hydian Way and the Rimma Trade Route in the final actions of the Outer Rim Sieges.[1]

Styling himself a General, Ranulph Tarkin bombastically referred to his fleet as the Republic Navy and his ground troops as the Republic Army; although both had been eliminated by the Ruusan Reformation, his Militarist faction sought to reestablish them.

Tarkin's detractors noted that the ORSF was composed almost entirely of Humans, which struck many as speciesist. Tarkin insisted that this reflected a concern for unit morale and a desire to standardize systems and procedures.[1] Either by result or intent, most of Tarkin's soldiers agreed with his Humanocentric ideals.